Well, the line-up for this year’s New England Metal & Hardcore Festival — one of the oldest and most revered extreme music fests in the U.S. — has been announced, and it’s… interesting. The fest returns to a three-day format after being only two days last year, but if I’m not mistaken, this is the first time that the initial day will be a Thursday, not a Friday. And as reader Brian Kessler pointed out to us via e-mail, there are two noteworthy aspects to the lineup:

• It seems like metal and hardcore have been further segregated on the bill — Thursday appears to be almost entirely dedicated to deathcore and crabcore bands, Friday seems to be entirely devoted to hardcore bands, and Saturday is dominated by metal bands. There are pros and cons to this approach — the pro being that if you’re only a fan of one particular style of extreme music, you can cherry pick which day you’re going to attend, and the con being that new fans are less likely to be exposed to bands with whom they were not already familiar.
• There seem to be fewer “big name” acts. Sure, Hatebreed and Biohazard are on there, but that’s still a far cry from years’ past. In fact, plenty of big name who have new albums scheduled to come out this year — like Amon Amarth, DevilDriver, Arch Enemy, In Flames, and Children of Bodom — aren’t playing the fest.

Please note that I’m not knocking the fest — in fact, I think Saturday, April 16 is full of killer bands — and I don’t think every fest needs to be headlined by a band of Megadeth’s stature. I just think this particular line-up is… interesting.

Anyway, here’s the full bill:

Click to read more…

Well, the line-up for this year’s New England Metal & Hardcore Festival — one of the oldest and most revered extreme music fests in the U.S. — has been announced, and it’s… interesting. The fest returns to a three-day format after being only two days last year, but if I’m not mistaken, this is the first time that the initial day will be a Thursday, not a Friday. And as reader Brian Kessler pointed out to us via e-mail, there are two noteworthy aspects to the lineup:

• It seems like metal and hardcore have been further segregated on the bill — Thursday appears to be almost entirely dedicated to deathcore and crabcore bands, Friday seems to be entirely devoted to hardcore bands, and Saturday is dominated by metal bands. There are pros and cons to this approach — the pro being that if you’re only a fan of one particular style of extreme music, you can cherry pick which day you’re going to attend, and the con being that new fans are less likely to be exposed to bands with whom they were not already familiar.
• There seem to be fewer “big name” acts. Sure, Hatebreed and Biohazard are on there, but that’s still a far cry from years’ past. In fact, plenty of big name who have new albums scheduled to come out this year — like Amon Amarth, DevilDriver, Arch Enemy, In Flames, and Children of Bodom — aren’t playing the fest.

Please note that I’m not knocking the fest — in fact, I think Saturday, April 16 is full of killer bands — and I don’t think every fest needs to be headlined by a band of Megadeth’s stature. I just think this particular line-up is… interesting.

Anyway, here’s the full bill:

Click to read more…

The Summer metal tour market for 2010 is crowded, yo.We’ve got the older and mainstream metal-skewed Rockstar Mayhem Fest (Korn, Zombie, 5FDP, Atreyu, Winds of Plague, Hatebreed) the Rockstar-branded radio metal “Uproar” Tour sure to be a hit in Red States (Disturbed, A7X, Hellyeah), the Christian, metalcore and Christian metalcore fest known as The Cool Tour (As I Lay Dying, Underoath, War of Ages, Blessthefall, and uh… BTBAM) and the sexiest of all sex kittens, Summer Slaughter (Decapitated, The Faceless, All Shall Perish, The Red Chord, other cool bands). And, if you count 6 dates as a “tour” you’ve got Ozzfest, which does a surprisingly good job of combining the old (Ozzy, Motley Crue, Rob Halford, BLS) with the new/cool (Kingdom of Sorrow, Skeletonwitch, Goatwhore, Saviours).

So with all that on our plates, we’ve got yet another tour coming down the pipe this summer? As you’ve no doubt gathered from this article’s headline and image, yes, indeed we do.

My thoughts on the 2010 Thrash & Burn lineup — and dates — after the jump.

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As one of the chief riff providers for swaggercore titans Every Time I Die, Andy Williams takes pride in making the discordant into catchy. For a perfect example of this, look no further than the band’s latest (MetalSucks-approved) album, New Junk Aesthetic. Distilling the band’s decade-plus essence into a tight half hour, it’s a satisfying mix of thunderous heaviness and easily the most appealing material the band have put to tape. But while he’s often overshadowed by vocalist Keith Buckley’s relentless wiseassery, it’s his and Jordan Buckley’s Skynard-by-way-of-Dillinger-Escape-Plan guitar work that make the band stand out and ultimately worthwhile.

A self-described “chatty Cathy,” Andy Williams was remarkably frank and refreshingly earnest in a recent interview with MetalSucks on the eve of the release of New Junk Aesthetic. Among other things, he discussed why he can listen to the new album and none of the band’s other material, his thoughts on the new Converge record, the changing landscape of the scene he came up in, and life over at ETID’s new label, Epitaph.

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We aren’t sure which member of Buffalo, NY metal warriors Every Time I Die wrote the below “official” press release we received today, but we’d like to think it’s axe-slinger Andy Williams, if only because of his ginormous, manlier-than-thou, f’ing awesome beard:

November 3rd, 2008

An Open Letter to Axl Rose Ending With an Impression of Howard Dean,
Thanks a shitload Axl. You haven’t put out a GNR record in 10 years and the month we decide to go out on a tour cleverly named NOVEMBER REIGN, you find it prime time for “Chinese Democracy” to hit shelves. You couldn’t have waited another 3 weeks? We haven’t done a single headlining tour on “The Big Dirty” so this was a really big deal for us. You should have seen Josh’s face light up when he thought of the name. The guys in THE BRONX and STICK TO YOU [sic] GUNS were happier than pigs in shit to be a part of this epic journey across the east coast. But you just couldn’t stand to see us happy.
Buckethead probably wouldn’t have stolen our thunder. And when I met Matt Sorum at House of Guitars like 16 years ago, he came off as a real nice dude
who would be glad to let us have November to ourselves. Well fuck it, we’re doing it anyways. Starting November 1st, we’re going to Quebec City! and
then we’re going to Milwaukee! And then we’re going to JOPLIN AND NASHVILLE AND RICHMOND AND THEN WE’RE GOING TO FARMINGDALE TO TAKE BACK THE
CRAZY DONKEY!!! BEYYYYYAAAWWW!!!!!
love every time i die.
ps. you rock.

Full tour dates, featuring Every Time I Die, The Bronx, and Stick To Your Guns, after the jump.

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